Singapore Airlines is shifting one of its daily Guangzhou flights to Scoot

15 Aug 2018 by Craig Bright

Singapore Airlines is shifting one of its two daily flights to Guangzhou to its low-cost subsidiary, Scoot, this October in a move that will bring the budget airline’s total number of daily flights to the Guangdong capital to three.

From October 28 onwards, Singapore Airlines’ daily flight SQ852 and SQ853 will cease to operate, with Scoot operating the route as TR104 and TR105 starting the same day with more or less the same schedule.

Scoot has yet to specify the aircraft that will take over the new flights to Guangzhou – its other two routes are operated by both its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and its Airbus A320 – though regardless it’s bad news for business travellers flying between Singapore and Guangzhou.

For starters, the budget airline offers no business class seats on its A320s, while its 787s have a ScootBiz product that is laid out in a 2-3-2 formation. Along with the different service offered in ScootBiz compared to Singapore Airlines’ business class, the former also don’t have seat-back in-flight entertainment (IFE) screens.

Compare this with Singapore Airlines’ business class product on its A330-300, which it currently flies on both of its daily Guangzhou services. These are the airline’s oldest business class seats, however they do offer IFE screens and recline to a lie-flat position.

Business Traveller has previously reviewed this seat as it appears on Singapore Airlines’ B777-200 aircraft.

The other downside to Singapore Airlines losing one of its two daily flights to Guangzhou is that it comes just after the airline rolled out a brand newbusiness class dining menu for its flights to and from China last month.

Scoot has notably been focusing on expanding into low-cost long-haul travel over the past 18 months, having now launched flights to Athens, Honolulu and most recently Berlin.